It has long been known that dangerous mycotoxins produced by fungus can contaminate food including peanuts, coffee, grapes, and many other foods. Wine also can contain very small amounts of aflatoxins and ochratoxin. These natural contaminants are heavily regulated both in the US and Europe.
An article appeared in the March 22, 2010, issue of Chemical and Engineering News, a news publication of the American Chemical Society. The article "Wine's Mycotoxin Profile Grows" is on p 44.There is an online site at
A recent publication by Nielsen and others in Denmark has found another mycotoxin known as Fumonisin B2 in wine. The original research is presented in J. Agric. Food Chem., DOI: 10.1021/jf904520t .This journal likely is difficult to find outside of a few technical libraries. The research group developed testing methods and tested 77 red and white wines from around the world in vintages from 1991 to
2008. Fumonisin B2 was detected in 18 wines in concentrations ranging from 1 to 25 micrograms/L. A researcher at the U.S Department of Agriculture said that even the maximum concentration detected in the wines is still only about 1 percent of the guidance level for Fumonisins in maize.Thus it appears that there is no need to become excited about this new finding, at least for the wines studied. Likely the study should be extended to more wines. It is still possible some wine could be found with enough Fumonisin B2 to be of concern. Perhaps a really nasty, cheap, sweet wine made from overripe grapes containing some that are moldy and rotten would be interesting to test.
It will be interesting to see if some of the general press picks this up and if they present the fiindings correctly.